Lent is coming…FAST! It’s hard to believe, but the holy season of Lent is just around the corner, so I invite us all to prayerfully consider how we will enter in. Ash Wednesday falls on February 14, which is the traditional date of the feast day of St. Valentine. I remind us all that, even … Continued
Praise God for Our Deacons In the 6th chapter of the book of the Acts of the Apostles, we read about the Holy Spirit inspiring the Apostles to invite certain men to help with the daily work of ministry, and calling them deacons (from the Greek word diakonia, which means “service”). From that time on, … Continued
What is happening in the Vatican? Some saint said “There is a particular piety that comes from having no idea what the pope in Rome is doing.” But in this “information tsunami” age we live in, especially in a time where the nation, the world, and even the Church are experiencing great temptations to division … Continued
Patience is a Virtue One of the great spiritual lessons I’ve learned along the way is to hold on to moments of spiritual consolation for those times when spiritual desolation will inevitably come. Consolation here means the experience of the goodness of the Lord, answered prayers, His closeness, the receiving of particular graces; desolation here … Continued
Holy Family “As the family goes, so goes the nation.” St. John Paul II St. John Paul II made this declaration in 1986 as he was speaking in Perth, Australia. His original statement, truncated above, adds “and so goes the whole world in which we live.” St. Teresa of Calcutta (Mother Teresa) once also famously … Continued
Dear All Saints Parish Family, Every seven years, when Christmas Day falls on a Monday, we have a short Advent. But it gives us the opportunity to draw close to the Lord twice in the same week, once for the very short 4th week of Advent, and again for celebration of the Nativity of the Lord. So … Continued
Why The Pink? Probably most of us are aware that the 3rd Sunday of Advent traditionally uses the color pink, or rose. Some may know that the name of this Sunday is Gaudete Sunday, which translates to “Rejoice” Sunday. But do you know why the 3rd Sunday of Advent uses this liturgical color or why … Continued
Keeping Christmas in Christmas Pt. 2 For many of us, the “Holidays” are most readily recognized by the music of the season. Is it really Christmas if Bing Crosby hasn’t crooned White Christmas? One of the best ways to keep Christmas in Christmas is to save those Christmas songs until we actually begin the celebration … Continued
Keeping Christmas in Christmas Happy new year! With the beginning of Advent, we start a new liturgical year of grace as we await the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. And around this time of year we usually start to hear the familiar slogan “keep Christ in Christmas”. It’s given as an invitation to not … Continued
“The secret of happiness is to live moment by moment and to thank God for what He is sending us every day in His goodness.” St. Gianna Molla Dear All Saints Parish Family, Even though the national day of Thanksgiving has already come and gone, as St. Ginna rightly claims, true and abiding happiness is … Continued
The 5th (and final) Precept We made it. This weekend we wrap up the 5 Precepts of the Roman Catholic Church. To review ever so briefly what we’ve looked at so far, the first 4 precepts were 1) to attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation; 2) to confess our sins at least … Continued
The Fourth Precept We’re almost there! So far we’ve covered 1) To attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days of Obligation, 2) To go to confession at least once a year (and any time we are aware of grave sins), and 3) To receive Holy Communion at least once during the Easter Season. The fourth … Continued
The Third Precept The third precept of the Roman Catholic Church is to receive the Eucharist at least once per year, during the Easter season. While we are encouraged to receive the Eucharist frequently, the Church only requires that we receive the Eucharist once per year, and that it be during the Easter season, the … Continued
The Second Precept We continue this week diving into the precepts of the Catholic Church, the second of which is to confess your sins at least once a year. And the Church adds to this once-a-year precept to confess any time we are aware of grave sins and that we should not present ourselves to … Continued
Back to Basics #1 A few weeks ago, I promised that I would dive into the Precepts of the Church, the basic elements of the “rule of life” for a disciple of Jesus Christ in His Catholic Church. The first of those precepts is the most important: To attend Mass on Sundays and Holy Days … Continued
Domini Sumus — We are the Lord’s Our second reading this Sunday comes from St. Paul’s Letter to the Romans, and it’s in this very passage that he came up with the motto of St. Pius X Catholic High School…Domini Sumus, that is, We are the Lord’s. Do you see yourself as belonging to the … Continued
Did you know priests come from seeds? The portion of his life that a priest spends in serious discernment and preparation for Holy Orders takes place at a school called a seminary, which gets its name from the Latin seminarium, which means “seed bed”. The man planted in the seed bed for that time of … Continued
Oasis Everyone is likely familiar, from the movies and shows we grew up with or from the books we’ve read, with the image of an oasis in the desert, that lush refuge of palm trees and clear springs, providing needed shade and respite, quenching deep thirsts for the weary desert wanderer. That word – oasis … Continued
Going up in smoke Part of the joy of our Catholic faith is the ol’ “bells and smells,” and there’s no more Catholic smell than incense. I grew to love incense so much after learning why the Church loves incense so much, and I hope you will fall deeper in love with this meaningful and … Continued
I only ever got to take one official flight lesson. It was a Cessna 152, a cramped two seater prop-job for normal-sized people, not to mention a person of my…well…largeness. Despite having spent countless hours on Microsoft Flight Simulator and studying aviation maneuvers in books, real-life flight proved to be significantly more involved. Add to … Continued
